DJIBRIL CISSE picked the perfect moment to end his two-and-a-half month goal drought as he fired the Black Cats to within sight of safety.

The French striker had not scored in his last seven outings – dating back to the Tyne-Wear derby on February 1 – but rediscovered his scoring touch to sink floundering Hull City at the Stadium of Light.

Replays showed Cisse’s goal in first-half injury-time should have been disallowed for an offside against the on-loan Marseille man, but Sunderland have suffered at the hands of poor refereeing decisions so many times this season that they will feel justice was done.

It was a game Sunderland dared not lose and really had to win if they are going to avoid the drop.

Brown’s pre-match jibes about the amount of money Sunderland have spent on players and the fact they are fighting relegation provided the ideal motivation for the Wearsiders.

They made Brown eat his words as they leapfrogged the Tigers to climb to 15th, doubling the gap between themselves and the relegation zone to four points in the process.

And with a game at basement side West Brom to come next Saturday, another victory could bring them to the brink of safety.

But while Sunderland’s win – their first in eight games – puts them on course for survival, Hull have won just one of their last 17 games and are in freefall, with their terrific start to the season now just a distant memory.

After last weekend’s gutsy performance in defeat against Manchester United, Sbragia kept faith with the same starting line-up and the players answered his call for a repeat of their display against the Red Devils.

Kieran Richardson, who missed the Man U game with a calf problem, was included on the bench despite not training all week, but Dean Whitehead, who had also been suffering from a calf injury, was not fit enough to be involved.

Hull chief Brown made four changes to the side that lost 3-1 at Middlesbrough last weekend, with goalkeeper Matt Duke, skipper Ian Ashbee and midfielders Nicky Barmby and Bernard Mendy missing out.

The only enforced absentee was Ashbee, who was suspended after accumulating 10 bookings.

In came Boaz Myhill, George Boateng, Dean Marney and former Sunderland man Kevin Kilbane. Chances were few and far between for most of the first half, although the best of them fell to Hull.

Manucho was inches away from making contact with a left-wing Geovanni cross with only seven minutes on the clock, and then 20 minutes later Anton Ferdinand was caught in possession by Manucho and only a smart save from Craig Gordon denied Kilbane a goal. Sunderland then survived a scare in the 44th minute when Marney met Geovanni’s left-wing corner six yards out and Phil Bardsley had to head clear from just in front of his own goalline.

But the Black Cats went in front from a corner two minutes into injury time, conceded when Kilbane almost turned the ball into his own net as he dealt with a cross from Carlos Edwards.

When the right-wing corner was taken it came all the way out to Reid on the left and he crossed it back in, Teemu Tainio headed on at the near post and Cisse glanced the ball past Myhill and into the bottom right-hand corner.

That was just the boost Sunderland needed on the stroke of half-time and it eased the home fans’ nerves.

Cisse almost doubled Sunderland’s lead a minute after the interval when he brought a fine save out of Myhill with a 20-yard shot.

Kenwyne Jones then had a “goal” disallowed two minutes later when Edwards crossed from the right, Andy Reid at the far post headed back across the face of goal and the striker nodded home, but the linesman correctly spotted the Trinidad & Tobago man was just offside.

At the other end, ex-Middlesbrough man Boateng flashed a 25-yard effort just wide of the top right-hand corner, but Sunderland should have killed off the Tigers on 54 minutes.

A short corner on the left ended up with Grant Leadbitter crossing the ball in for Jones, but he somehow glanced his header wide from six yards.

While Hull pushed forward in search of an equaliser, Sunderland wasted good chances to hit them on the break with Edwards galloping forward with the ball with three men in support and only two defenders in front of him, but the winger dithered in the box and the chance was gone.

And substitute Steed Malbranque squandered a similar opportunity when he broke forward with the ball with Jones making ground alongside him, but his attempted pass was too close to the keeper.

In between, Hull sub Caleb Folan headed wide of the target from a good position but Gordon had it covered all the way.

Sunderland could have set the seal on the win in the fourth minute of injury time when sub Daryl Murphy worked himself a shooting chance inside the box, but his powerful drive came back off the inside of the post, although it didn’t matter as the final whistle went 30 seconds later.